


Pretty lights.

by hyeongyeon



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, okay maybe a little sad at the beginnig but it's just fluff, this is for Mel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 10:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21298100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyeongyeon/pseuds/hyeongyeon
Summary: Where Mina is sick, and her cure happens to be all across the ocean.
Relationships: Myoui Mina/Kim Jisoo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 66





	Pretty lights.

Mina had always been sickly as a child.

She used to spend more time inside hospital rooms than in her own home, the doctors coming up with various series of theories that always seemed to amount to nothing. Her scans always came with positive results, and so did every test they’d perform on her. 

It wasn’t until she was three years old and had gone through practically every specialist in the hospital that they came to their final diagnosis. 

Mina’s soul was weak. It tended to happen, from time to time, although it was a rare case. Some souls were strong and energetic, independent ones, who usually went with their lives without much complication. Others, like Mina’s, tended to carry very little energy. 

Those people tended to just be more introverted, shy and calm, leading lifestyles where routine wasn’t too stressful. In some cases, those souls had so little energy that it affected the body, too.

For those rare cases the usual procedure was to wait until that person found their soulmate. Science still didn’t have an answer as to why, but it tended to solve the problem. The most common theory was that those souls were one once that got separated into two, there was still much that wasn’t known about soulmates.

Once Mina’s soul found the one it was destined to, her other half, she’d start to regain her strength. 

So they finally send her home, one she doesn’t remember at all. It’s a sad day for Mina, she remembers that much. All the nurses and doctors say goodbye to her, they give her a cake and tell her she should be happy, she’s finally going home. But they don’t seem happy that she’s going home, some of them even tear up a little, and she certainly doesn’t want to go to a place she doesn’t know. She grips her mom’s sleeve tightly as they walk away from the hospital, into the unknown. She starts classes the next year.

For Mina, school is an interesting place. She doesn’t hate it per se, she just doesn’t understand the other kids. Why do they keep running around, doing exercise until they’re out of breath and full of sweat? She feels awful when she does that. So she mostly keeps to herself, playing with the same set of lego over and over, trying to see all the different combinations she can manage to do. She feels happy when her teachers praises her creativity. 

But as she grows older, she starts to wonder, to ask questions about herself. Why can’t she do what other children do? She’d also like to play sports, to try and climb the tallest tree, to run around aimlessly like all her friends do. She tries sometimes, when no one’s watching, but she’s never the fastest or the most enduring one. She always feels terrible the next day, as if something inside was tearing at her body, sucking the life out of her. 

Her mom gets angry at her, she cries and pouts and yells, but the result is always the same. Mina locks herself in her room and cries until she gets bored, but she never gets an answer.

The sudden news come when she’s nine years old. They’re moving, away from Osaka, away from Japan. Her mom shows her a map, like the ones she sees in class. She likes maps, likes knowing how big the world really is. She wonders if she’ll ever get to see everything one day. Her mom points to the north of the korean peninsula, a small city south of Seoul, called Gunpo. Her dad has found a better job there and mom promises her they’ll be happy. 

That week, all her classmates and teachers say goodbye to her, they give her a cake and tell her she should be happy, she’s going to see the world like she always tells everyone. But her friends don’t seem happy, some of them have red eyes from crying. Why does everyone keep lying about how they feel? Mina wishes, again, she could be like the other kids. 

Life in Korea isn’t so different from home. Her dad spends more time out, and she really misses him, but their house is big and nice, and her mom agrees to let her adopt a pet, only on the condition she takes care of it. She names her new dog Ray, and it quickly becomes her best friend. She spends the first months homeschooled, even if she really doesn’t understand why. 

She takes korean lessons twice a day, in the morning and afternoon. 

Her teacher always brings her sweets when she finishes her lessons, she tells Mina her mom used to have a bakery store where she’d always help when she was little like her. Her favorites are hotteok and bukkimi. Mina especially likes the bukkimi, because it usually comes with a little small flower she can eat. 

She asks her teacher if eating too many flowers will make a tree grow inside of her, worried that she’d have to drink even more water to keep it alive, like her mom does with the plants in the garden. She laughs when her teacher tickles her as she tells her that yes, she’ll have a small tree in her stomach, and that the leaves will tickle her from inside, just like she’s doing now. They share the sweets with a big smile, and Mina thanks her in perfect korean.

When she’s fluent enough and used to her new surroundings, she finally gets to go to school. 

It takes a while to get used to the cultural differences, but Mina adapts really quickly to that, too. She just observes what everyone usually does and mimics it.

She doesn’t make too many new friends, though. 

Of course, it doesn’t help that she still can’t seem to do any physical activity for more than a short period of time. She's old enough now to understand how other kids see her, as something weird. That day she cries when she gets home, making sure her mom doesn’t see her. Why can’t she just be like the other kids? 

But something happens the next day, something Mina won’t be able to explain until much, much later in her life. 

She’s just minding her own business, playing with her Nintendo while the rest of the kids run around the schoolyard. It’s already autumn, so they kick the leaves as they fall to the ground, the cold air making Mina’s fingers stiff as she plays with her new Pokémon game. She thinks of the mittens in her bag and pouts. They’re warm, but they’re also too big to play with them. She ultimately decides that her fingers are more important than catching any legendary pokémon and stops playing, putting the Nintendo carefully on her bag as she slips her hands on her mittens, one of a time, instantly feeling the warmth return to her fingers. She notices a girl sitting right beside her, a book in her hands. She takes her gaze away from the pages and their eyes meet for just one second, just enough to make something stir inside of Mina, something that prompts her to scoot closer to this mysterious girl. 

“What are you reading?” 

The girl seems genuinely surprised to be interrupted during her reading time, but she doesn’t seem bothered by it. On the contrary, she smiles and moves closer too.

“Harry Potter!”

Mina gasps, smiling as she practically jumps in her place, pressing against the other girl as she puts the book between their legs. 

“I love this part!”

“Me too!”

“I’m Mina! I’m a Ravenclaw.” 

The other girl gasps louder than Mina previously did, her excitement clear as day in her face. 

“I’m Jisoo, I’m a Ravenclaw too!” 

“Why aren’t you playing with the other kids?”

The question escapes Mina’s lips before she can think about it, her innocence getting the better of her. Jisoo looks at her and in her eyes there’s a brief flash of sadness, something Mina has seen countless times. Looking at the puddles in the street, at the water in the ocean, at every reflection. It’s the same looks she sees in her own eyes. 

“I can’t. Mom says I get sick if i do.”

“Me too…” 

Mina’s voice becomes barely a whisper, for the first time in her life she’s found someone who she can understand, who isn’t as loud and all over the place as the other kids. She picks up the book just where Jisoo is reading and they spend the next few moments until the school bell rings in silence, reading at the same pace, their eyes moving through the same lines, their hearts beating at the same rhythm. 

They instantly become best friends, inseparable, they beg to sit together in class and surprisingly enough it works. Mina‘s mother meets Jisoo's next week and they talk for hours and hours while their kids play upstairs. They both exchange numbers, the biggest smile any of them had ever had over their faces. They both agree to wait until Mina and Jisoo are old enough to tell them.

Maybe it was just an accumulation of coincidences, maybe it was destiny at work, slowly but steadily pushing them together. It didn’t really matter to neither of them.

The next big moment in Mina’s life happens next month, and it changes everything, forever. They’re walking home together, the first snowflakes of the year falling around them. The cold makes their cheeks rosy, Mina sniffs. She’s used to catching a cold at this time of the year, but Jisoo can’t help but notice. Mina is missing one of her mittens, too. Jisoo points at her hand and looks at her. 

“I think I lost it… I only have one. I hope my mom doesn’t get mad. They’re really warm.”

Her fingers are so cold, but there’s really nothing else she can do besides rub her hand against the gloved one, which doesn’t amount to much. Jisoo suddenly stops walking and Mina stops right beside her, as in sync, like she usually did. She thinks for a few seconds before taking a glove off, but Mina stops her. 

“You’ll get your hands cold if you take it off!”

Jisoo shakes her head, she puts her spare glove in the pocket of her coat. 

“We’ll get cold together!” 

She grabs Mina‘s hand and their fingers intertwine. 

They both feel it instantly, a spark coursing through the tip of their fingers all the way to the deepest part of their hearts. For the first time in Mina’s life the thing she’s always felt inside, that which threatens to consume her whenever she tries to go against it, swells. It blooms, and it fills every little fiber in her body. Mina has to catch her breath as the cold in her cheeks disappears, suddenly everything’s warm, every color appears in front of her eyes, she can breathe again, she can do anything now. Jisoo feels it, too, as if a veil has been lifted from her eyes. Everything looks different, more alive. Everything except Mina. She still shines with the same light. They still do.

Even if neither of them knows what’s happening they laugh, squeeze their hands together and keep walking, a smile spreading across their faces as they jump and play. They don’t get sick, there’s no tiredness. When they get to Mina‘s home they insist on playing outside for the first time and her mom agrees, watching them very closely. She has to keep herself from crying as she sees Mina jumping around, laughing and yelling, taking off her scarf and running around with Jisoo. They pretend to be little planes, extending their arms as they circle around. It certainly feels like she could fly now. They make a few snowballs with what little snow they can scoop and they throw them against each other. Mina challenges Jisoo to a race. It’s a draw. 

She’s never felt more alive.

Even if they don’t fully understand what’s happening, it doesn’t matter. It took a while, but their souls finally found each other. 

They’re together again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of a trilogy! 
> 
> I hope you'll like it, even if it's such a rare pairing.


End file.
